Hi Christopher,
The error is expected because 'conformalArray' is supposed to create an Antenna Array and not a custom antenna. When you are designing an array, the elements do not intersect.
Infact, if you remove the intersection of the antennas:
ant1 = monopole('Height',0.492,'GroundPlaneLength',0.1,'GroundPlaneWidth',0.1);
% figure; returnLoss(vhf,50e6:1e6:1e9,50);
ant2 = monopole('Height',0.162,'GroundPlaneLength',0.1,'GroundPlaneWidth',0.1,'TiltAxis','Y','Tilt',180);
% figure; returnLoss(uhf,50e6:1e6:1e9,50);
n = 1e-1;
ant3 = monopole('Height',n,'Width',0.02,'GroundPlaneLength',0.34,'GroundPlaneWidth',0.1,'TiltAxis','Y','Tilt',90);
% figure; returnLoss(boom,50e6:1e6:500e6,50);
c = conformalArray('Element',{ant1,ant2,ant3},...
'ElementPosition',[ 0 0 0.18 ;
0 0 -0.18;
0.05 0 0],'Reference','origin');
figure(1); show(c);
figure(2); pattern(c,70e6);
Everything works perfectly fine.
Since you want to design custom antenna (and not array) please refer the following documentation and hopefully this should help you get started:
-Sudarshan
